Isa 12:5 Sing to the LORD. He has done glorious things. Let it be known all over the world.
Eph 2:1-10. You were living in your sins and lawless ways. But in fact you were dead.
You used to live as sinners when you followed the ways of this world. You served the one who rules over the spiritual forces of evil. He is the spirit who is now at work in those who don't obey God.
At one time we all lived among them. We tried to satisfy what our sinful nature wanted to do. We followed its longings and thoughts. God was angry with us and everyone else because of the kind of people we were.
But God loves us deeply. He is full of mercy.
So he gave us new life because of what Christ has done. He gave us life even when we were dead in sin. God's grace has saved you.
God raised us up with Christ. He has seated us with him in his heavenly kingdom because we belong to Christ Jesus.
He has done it to show the riches of his grace for all time to come. His grace can't be compared with anything else. He has shown it by being kind to us because of what Christ Jesus has done.
God's grace has saved you because of your faith in Christ. Your salvation doesn't come from anything you do. It is God's gift.
It is not based on anything you have done. No one can brag about earning it.
God made us. He created us to belong to Christ Jesus. Now we can do good things. Long ago God prepared them for us to do.
Ephesians 2:1-10
D. God's Power Manifest in the Salvation of Gentiles and Jews (2:1-10)
2:1 The chapter break should not obscure the vital connection between the latter part of chapter 1 and the verses that follow. There we watched the mighty power of God as it raised Christ from the grave and crowned Him with glory and honor. Now we see how that same power has worked in our own lives, raising us from spiritual death and seating us in Christ in the heavenlies.
This passage resembles the first chapter of Genesis. In each we have: (1) a scene of desolation, chaos, and ruin (Gen 1:2 a; Eph 2:1-3); (2) the introduction of divine power (Gen 1:2 b; Eph 2:4); (3) the creation of new life (Gen 1:3-31; Eph 2:5-22).
When Ephesians 2 opens, we are spiritual corpses in death valley. When it closes, we are not only seated in Christ in the heavenlies; we form a habitation of God through the Spirit. In between we have the mighty miracle that brought about this remarkable transformation.
The first ten verses describe God's power in the salvation of Gentiles and Jews. No Cinderella ever advanced from such rags to such riches!
In verses 1 and 2 Paul reminds his Gentile readers that before their conversion they were dead, depraved, diabolical, and disobedient. They were spiritually dead as a result of their trespasses and sins. This means they were lifeless toward God. They had no vital contact with Him. They lived as if He did not exist. The cause of death was trespasses and sins. Sins are any form of wrongdoing, whether consciously committed or not, and thoughts, words, or deeds which fall short of God's perfection. Trespasses are sins which are committed in open violation of a known law. In a wider sense they may also include any form of false steps or blunders.
2:2 The Ephesians had been depraved as well as dead. They walked according to the course of this world. They conformed to the spirit of this age. They indulged in the sins of the times. The world has a mold into which it pours its devotees. It is a mold of deceit, immorality, ungodliness, selfishness, violence, and rebellion. In a word, it is a mold of depravity. That is what the Ephesians had been like.
Not only so, their behavior was diabolical. They followed the example of the devil, the prince of the power of the air. They were led around by the chief ruler of evil spirits, whose realm is the atmosphere. They were willingly obedient to the god of this age. This explains why the unconverted often stoop to vile forms of behavior lower than that of animals.
Finally, they were disobedient, walking according to the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience. All unsaved people are sons of disobedience in the sense that they are characterized by disobedience to God. They are energized by Satan and are therefore disposed to defy, dishonor, and disobey the Lord.
2:3 Paul's switch of the personal pronoun from you to we indicates he is now speaking primarily of Jewish believers (although what he says is also true of everyone before conversion). Three words describe their status: carnal, corrupt, and condemned.
Among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh. It was among the sons of disobedience that Paul and his fellow Christians also walked prior to their new birth. Their life was carnal, concerned only with the gratification of fleshly desires and appetites. Paul himself had lived an outwardly moral life on the whole, but now he realized how self-centered it was. And what he was in himself was a lot worse than anything he had ever done.
The unconverted Jews were also corrupt, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind. This indicates an abandonment to every natural desire. Desires of the flesh and of the mind may range all the way from legitimate appetites to various forms of immorality and perversion; here the emphasis is probably on the grosser sins. And notice, Paul refers to sins of thought as well as to sinful acts.
It is as ruinous to indulge the desires of the mind as those of the flesh. By the marvelous gift of imagination we may indulge unholy fancies, and throw the reins on the neck of the steeds of passion—always stopping short of the act. No human eye follows the soul when it goes forth to dance with satyrs or to thread the labyrinthine maze of the islands of desire. It goes and returns unsuspected by the nearest. Its credit for snow-white purity is not forfeited. It is still permitted to watch among the virgins for the Bridegroom's advent. But if this practice is unjudged and unconfessed, it marks the offender a son of disobedience and a child of wrath.
This is Paul's final description of the unsaved Jews: they were by nature children of wrath, just as the others. This means they had a natural predisposition to anger, malice, bitterness, and hot temper. They shared this with the rest of mankind. Of course, it is also true that they are under the wrath of God. They are appointed to death and judgment. Notice that man's three enemies are mentioned in verses 2 and 3: the world (v. 2), the devil (v. 2), and the flesh (v. 3).
2:4 The words, But God, form one of the most significant, eloquent, and inspiring transitions in all literature. They indicate that a stupendous change has taken place. It is a change from the doom and despair of the valley of death to the unspeakable delights of the kingdom of the Son of God's love.
The Author of the change is God Himself. No one else could have done it, and no one else would have done it.
One characteristic of this blessed One is that He is rich in mercy. He shows mercy to us by not treating us the way we deserve to be treated (Psa 103:10). “Though it has been expended by Him for six millennia, and myriads and myriads have been partakers of it, it is still an unexhausted mine of wealth,” as Eadie remarks.
The reason for His intervention is given in the words, because of His great love with which He loved us. His love is great because He is its source. Just as the greatness of a giver casts an aura of greatness on his gift, so the surpassing excellence of God adds superlative luster to His love. It is greater to be loved by the mighty Sovereign of the universe, for instance, than by a fellow human being. God's love is great because of the price He paid. Love sent the Lord Jesus, God's only begotten Son, to die for us in agony at Calvary. God's love is great because of the unsearchable riches it showers on its objects.
2:5 And God's love is great because of the extreme unworthiness and unloveliness of the persons loved. We were dead in trespasses. We were enemies of God. We were destitute and degraded. He loved us in spite of it all.
As a result of God's love for us, and as a result of the redeeming work of Christ, we have been: (1) made alive together with Christ; (2) raised up with Him; (3) seated in Him.
These expressions describe our spiritual position as a result of our union with Him. He acted as our Representative—not only for us, but as us. Therefore when He died, we died. When He was buried, we were buried.
When He was made alive, raised, and seated in the heavenlies, so were we. All the benefits of His sacrificial work are enjoyed by us because of our link with Him. To be made alive together with Him means that converted Jews and converted Gentiles are now associated with Him in newness of life. The same power that gave Him resurrection life has given it to us also.
The marvel of this causes Paul to interrupt his train of thought and exclaim, By grace you have been saved. He is overwhelmed by the fathomless favor which God has shown to those who deserved the very opposite. That is grace!
We have already mentioned that mercy means we do not get the punishment we deserve. Grace means we do get the salvation we do not deserve. We get it as a gift, not as something we earn. And it comes from One who was not compelled to give it. A. T. Pierson says:
It is a voluntary exercise of love for which He is under no obligation. What constituted the glory of grace is that it is an utterly unfettered, unconstrained exercise of the love of God toward poor sinners.
2:6 Not only have we been made alive with Christ; we have also been raised up with Him. Just as death and judgment are behind Him, they are behind us also. We stand on the resurrection side of the tomb. This is our glorious position as a result of our union with Him. And because it is true of us positionally, we should live as those who are alive from the dead.
Another aspect of our position is that we are seated in Him in the heavenly places in Christ. By our union with Him we are seen as already delivered from this present evil world and seated in Christ in glory. This is how God sees us. If we appropriate it by faith, it will change the character of our lives. We will no longer be earthbound, occupied with the trivial and the transient. We will seek those things which are above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God (Col 3:1).
The key to verses 5 and 6 is the phrase, in Christ Jesus. It is in Him that we have been made alive, raised, and seated. He is our Representative; therefore His triumphs and His position are ours. George Williams exclaims, “Amazing thought! That a Mary Magdalene and a crucified thief should be the companions in glory of the Son of God.”
2:7 This miracle of transforming grace will be the subject of eternal revelation. Throughout the endless ages God will be unveiling to the heavenly throng what it cost Him to send His Son to this jungle of sin, and what it cost the Lord Jesus to bear our sins at the cross. It is a subject that will never be exhausted. Again Paul builds words upon words to suggest something of its immensity:
His kindness toward us
His grace in His kindness toward usThe riches of His grace in His kindness toward usThe exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward usNow it follows that if God will be disclosing this throughout eternity, then we will be learning forever and ever. Heaven will be our school. God will be the Teacher. His grace will be the subject. We will be the students. And the school term will be eternity.This should deliver us from the idea that we will know everything when we get to heaven. Only God knows everything, and we will never be equal with Him.
It also raises the interesting question: How much will we know when we get to heaven? And it suggests the possibility that we can prepare for the heavenly university by majoring in the Bible right now.
2:8 The next three verses present as clear a statement of the simple plan of salvation as we can find in the Bible.
It all originates with the grace of God: He takes the initiative in providing it. Salvation is given to those who are utterly unworthy of it, on the basis of the Person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ.
It is given as a present possession. Those who are saved can know it. Writing to the Ephesians, Paul said, You have been saved. He knew it, and they knew it.
The way we receive the gift of eternal life is through faith. Faith means that man takes his place as a lost, guilty sinner, and receives the Lord Jesus as his only hope of salvation. True saving faith is the commitment of a person to a Person.
Any idea that man can earn or deserve salvation is forever exploded by the words, and that not of yourselves. Dead people can do nothing, and sinners deserve nothing but punishment.
It is the gift of God. A gift, of course, is a free and unconditional present. That is the only basis on which God offers salvation. The gift of God is salvation by grace and through faith. It is offered to all people everywhere.
2:9 It is not of works, that is, it is not something a person can earn through supposedly meritorious deeds. It cannot be earned, for instance, by:
1. Confirmation
2. Baptism
3. Church membership
4. Church attendance
5. Holy Communion
6. Trying to keep the Ten Commandments
7. Living by the Sermon on the Mount
8. Giving to charity
9. Being a good neighbor
10. Living a moral, respectable life
People are not saved by works. And they are not saved by faith plus works. They are saved through faith alone. The minute you add works of any kind or in any amount as a means of gaining eternal life, salvation is no longer by grace (Rom 11:6). One reason that works are positively excluded is to prevent human boasting. If anyone could be saved by his works, then he would have reason to boast before God. This is impossible (Rom 3:27).
If anyone could be saved by his own good works, then the death of Christ was unnecessary (Gal 2:21). But we know that the reason He died was because there was no other way by which guilty sinners could be saved.
If anyone could be saved by his own good works, then he would be his own savior, and could worship himself. But this would be idolatry, and God forbids it (Exo 20:3).
Even if someone could be saved through faith in Christ plus his own good works, you would have the impossible situation of two saviors—Jesus and the sinner. Christ would then have to share the glory of saviorhood with another, and this He will not do (Isa 42:8).
Finally, if anyone could contribute to his salvation by works, then God would owe it to him. This, too, is impossible. God cannot be indebted to anyone (Rom 11:35).
In contrast to works, faith excludes boasting (Rom 3:27), because it is non meritorious. A man has no reason to be proud that he has trusted the Lord. Faith in Him is the most sane, rational, sensible thing a person can do. To trust one's Creator and Redeemer is only logical and reasonable. If we cannot trust Him, whom can we trust?
2:10 The result of salvation is that we are His workmanship—the handiwork of God, not of ourselves. A born-again believer is a masterpiece of God. When we think of the raw materials He has to work with, His achievement is all the more remarkable. Indeed, this masterpiece is nothing less than a new creation through union with Christ, for “if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new” (2Co 5:17).
And the object of this new creation is found in the phrase, for good works. While it is true that we are not saved by good works, it is equally true that we are saved for good works. Good works are not the root but the fruit. We do not work in order to be saved, but because we are saved.
This is the aspect of the truth that is emphasized in Jas 2:14-26. When James says that “faith without works is dead,” he does not mean we are saved by faith plus works, but by the kind of faith that results in a life of good works. Works prove the reality of our faith. Paul heartily agrees: we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works.
God's order then is this:
Faith—Salvation—Good Works—Reward
Faith leads to salvation. Salvation results in good works. Good works will be rewarded by Him.
But the question arises: What kind of good works am I expected to do? Paul answers, Good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. In other words, God has a blueprint for every life. Before our conversion He mapped out a spiritual career for us. Our responsibility is to find His will for us and then obey it. We do not have to work out a plan for our lives, but only accept the plan which He has drawn up for us. This delivers us from fret and frenzy, and insures that our lives will be of maximum glory to Him, of most blessing to others, and of greatest reward to ourselves.
In order to find out the good works He has planned for our individual lives, we should: (1) confess and forsake sin as soon as we are conscious of it in our lives; (2) be continually and unconditionally yielded to Him; (3) study the word of God to discern His will, and then do whatever He tells us to do; (4) spend time in prayer each day; (5) seize opportunities of service as they arise; (6) cultivate the fellowship and counsel of other Christians. God prepares us for good works. He prepares good works for us to perform. Then He rewards us when we perform them. Such is His grace!
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